Activity

  • ae_rollinson replied to the topic Why do we have Officers? in the forum Junior Officer 6 years, 2 months ago

    This is a fascinating idea, good question! In short, I would say that officers have the role of “planners” and enlisted have the role of “doers”. Now disclaimer – that is a gross oversimplification (even if stereotypes are mental shortcuts) and very watered down. It’s kind of a rephrasing of @spatelis – if you’re constantly trying to plan into the future AND execute in the present, you’ve got yourself stuck in a bit of a wormhole, you simply can’t do both. It’s not that officers never do “present” work or that NCOs don’t think about “future” tasks, but I’d say all in all, that’s how I presently make sense of things. In the US Army, that’s how roles have been delineated.

    That being said, I would reconsider your logic a bit that the Army has officers because having officers wins wars. There are plenty of other countries who have officers, it doesn’t mean they are winning at wars. Maybe I’m not fully understanding your idea – could you explain it some more?

    Also, what’s the framework for your LPD? Is this meant to be dialogue focused or an educational briefing? What endstate do you want?